Gem, Chesu, and Shriek watched almost breathlessly as Janken crept forward down the hallway. It took him nearly a dozen seconds to take a step, as he had to gently test the floor for traps before he went. He also spent another half a minute every few steps looking longingly back the way his companions had come, although Gem wasn’t sure if it was hope that they would return or desire to follow them.

The Priest had barely made it five feet down the hall before he turned and started pacing.

“What am I doing,” he murmured to himself. “They obviously aren’t going to return. If I stay here, I will absolutely die alone. But if I return… There’s no sanctuary. They will tease me endlessly. I may even have to find a new party, and it took me ages to earn the trust of this one.”

He sighed, a heaving thing that shook his thin shoulders. “That damnable Silver. This is all his fault.”

Gem asked his companions as the man spun in place, walked a handful of steps, and then spun back the other way.

Chesu flashed a grin in Gem’s direction. “Never bet against the stupidity of adventurers. He’ll continue forward.”

“He’s almost within range of the Plantlings and Funguslings,” Shriek said. Gem noted there was a longing to his voice, almost as if he wanted to be there. “You could change their commands easily.”

The thought bristled Gem.

“He’s useless.” Shriek’s multiple eyestalks oriented on the air around Gem’s core. “Without his pack, he is dead. It’s just a matter of time.”

Instead of arguing, Gem thought about the issue logically. For every moment Janken was roaming the halls of the second floor, there was another group who couldn’t come down here and give Gem more experience points. It was a waste of time to do anything less than clear the deck and start again.

He also really didn’t like the Priest. When it came time to fight the Ostrum, he needed those who could work well together as a group.

“Thousands,” Shriek answered, even though the question wasn’t directed at him. “Their floating island goes on for hundreds of blocks, and they live atop one another high into the sky.”

Chesu nodded. “He’s right. We’ve seen maybe a fifth of the Hero Cores out there. Some will be too old or too young to fight, and others will lag behind no matter what. But all you’ve managed to do is attract a small amount of them. Enough for now, but there are many more.”

Gem gave the mental command to his Plantlings and Funguslings, ordering them to expand their range of aggro just slightly.

Janken almost immediately strode into the area, his pacing growing more frantic.

Chesu folded his arms behind his head, sitting down in the air as if he were lounging in bed. His wings vibrated with the effort of keeping him afloat, which only seemed to enhance the illusion. He grinned wide at Gem and Shriek. “You don’t know what I’d give for a good sipping whiskey right now.”

“Ugh. No.” Chesu stuck his tongue out. “No offense to you kid, but dungeon-spawned liquor is foul. There’s just something not right. Sits on the tongue weirdly, and tastes off.”

Gem glared at the wisp.

“Ah, it ain’t like that, kid.” The wisp patted the tip of Gem’s core, which sent a strange sensation through Gem’s consciousness. “And believe me, if I thought the Hero Cores wouldn’t murder me on first sight, I’d think about it.

“The Plantlings are approaching.”

Gem turned his attention to Shriek, who was gazing up at Gem’s core with every eyestalk. His hands were folded in front of his chest and anticipation oozed from every branch of his body. There was something incredibly unsettling about the predatory focus, but Gem understood it.

Shriek was a dungeon mob, through and through. Gem might have given him intelligence and reasoning, but the Servitor couldn’t help his base instincts.

Gem asked as he watched the swarm of Plantlings and Funguslings scamper across the stone floor.

“I’ll be a Plantling,” Shriek said with absolute certainty. “Funguslings are weaker, despite their increased command cost.”

“Who cares if it is?” Shriek shrugged. “Pride has to come from somewhere and is usually justified.”

Shriek shook his head. “There’s a difference between pride and arrogance. That Hero Core has nothing to be proud of, and soon he will be brought to heel by my kind.” The Plantling glared up at Gem’s core. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to watch this.”

“Oof. Dismissed by your own Servitor.”

Gem sent the wisp a frowning core image as Chesu laughed. “He’s right though. Pride comes from knowing, while arrogance comes from feeling.”

Gem wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to watch the slaughter that was inching ever closer to the mumbling Priest. As the moment grew nigh, however, he shifted his vision to observe.

He had to know what his dungeon was capable of. Had to learn to trust in his mobs. Shying away from the violence that would save the world would do him no good.

Janken stopped pacing. Gem wasn’t sure if it was that a Plantling made a sound, or just some metaphysical knowledge that his death loomed. But he stared off down the hallway, ignoring the small entrance to his right.

“Callum protect me: bless me in your radiance and grant me the strength to smite my foes.”

As the words finished, Janken erupted in a bright white light that started at his chest and snaked down his limbs. It wasn’t painful to look at, although Gem could tell it was bright to the Hero Core because he squinted past the glow.

Chesu cackled. “Oh, look at that glow! Such a bad ability. We’re in for a treat.” The wisp grinned wide. “He’s one of Callum’s boys.”

“Universal god, although with the small ‘g’ not the big one. He’s a two-bit World Core that got some delusions of grandeur on sale during an apocalyptic event and decided he was a god. He dupes those that visit him into worship and then imbues them with a small sliver of ‘power’ that’s really just a manufactured Hero Core. They’re weaker than natural ones and produce a set of skills that are less than useful.”

“Yep. One flavor or another.”

Gem watched the Priest with renewed interest. However, his excitement waned after a moment.

Janken’s glow ability had blinded him even more than Gem had initially thought; it originated from his chest, meaning he wasn’t able to see the floor past its warm light.

The floor on which the Plantling swarm was approaching.

“There’s no sport here,” Shriek said with a disappointed tone. “His own stupidity has robbed them of the hunt.”

But it didn’t. At the first touch of Plantling limb, the Priest’s glow grew even brighter, but its light did nothing to dissuade the grasping hands.

The swarm mobs lived up to their name.

Janken’s shrieks rivaled the Plantlings, mixed with furious and desperate prayers to his unhelpful deity. But eventually they stopped, and Gem got the notification of death.

“Pitiful,” Shriek said, spitting the word as if it were foul in his mouth. His multitude of eyes refocused on Gem’s core, instead of the shared vision of the dungeon within. “My brethren yearn for a true challenge.”

The Plantling ruffled his petals with his hands. “Perhaps. If they do, I’d like to be one of their opponents. Test my mettle against their might.”

“There’ve been some other good adventure groups,” Chesu added. “Remember that kid with the long sword?”

Shriek laughed and shook his head. “Too much weapon for my kind. He’d still be swinging it when he died. It would be an unfair fight.”

“Alright, what about—”

Gem let them talk. He drowned the conversation out and pulled his consciousness away from his core to return to the crossroads where his quest board awaited.

It was there, as he was busying himself with brainstorming new quests, that he heard a familiar voice.

“I can’t believe he’s dead,” Null said, his tone as remorseful as his burdened stance. He practically drug his feet up the pathway. “We killed him.”

“No,” Silver said firmly. “He killed himself. There was every option to follow us. He stayed down there well after we left. His death is not on our heads.” Silver turned to glare at the other two party members. “And before one of you says it again, it isn’t the dungeon’s fault either. This place is not cursed or unfair. It is a dungeon; this is what dungeon’s do. We must respect the dungeon as much as we respect ourselves.”

What dungeons do. Gem mulled the words over as the party passed his quest board. They stopped to admire it, and then continued on.

“We just need to find a new healer,” Silver said after a moment. “One who actually wants to be part of a team, instead of just follow the ravings of a false god. Only then can we succeed.”

Best of luck to you, Gem thought after them. He returned his attention to his board. I hope to see you folks again.